Step by Step 3000 第2册 Unit9:Disasters(1)

 　　Step by Step 3000. Book Two.

　　Unit 9. News (1). Disasters.

　　Part 1. Warming up.

　　A. Keywords. earthquake, hit, killed, estimated, Richter Scale, shaken, measuring, struck, epicentered, magnitude.

　　Vocabulary. Richter Scale, massive, epicenter, magnitude, trigger, tsunami¹.

　　Assam, Agadir, Morocco, Guatemala, Armenia, Spitak, Caspian Sea, Acen, Sumatra.

　　You're going to hear some of the major earthquakes in history.

　　Listen carefully, and write down the numbers as rapidly as you can.

　　1. On November 1st, 1755, a strong earthquake hit Lisbon, Portugal.

　　It killed about 60,000 people, and was estimated to be 8.75 on the Richter Scale.

　　2. On April 18th to 19th, 1906, San Francisco was shaken by an earthquake, which killed 452 people.

　　It was estimated to be 8.3 on the Richter Scale.

　　3. A strong earthquake hit Gansu Province, China, on December 16th, 1920.

　　It killed 100,000 people and was estimated to be 8.6 on the Richter Scale.

　　4. On March 2nd, 1933, Japan was hit by an earthquake, which was estimated to be 8.9 on the Richter Scale.

　　It killed 2,990 people.

　　5. A strong earthquake measuring 8.7 on the Richter Scale occurred in Assam, India on August 15th, 1950.

　　It killed 1,530 people.

　　6. About 12,000 people were killed when an earthquake hit Agadir, Morocco, on February 29th, 1960.

　　It measured 5.8 on Richter Scale.

　　7. On September 1st, 1962, Northwestern Iran was hit by an earthquake, which measured 7.1 on the Richter Scale.

　　About 12,230 people were reported to be killed.

　　8. Guatemala experienced an earthquake on February 4th, 1975.

　　The earthquake measured 7.5 on the Richter Scale and killed a total number of 22,778 people.

　　9. A massive earthquake that struck Armenia on December 7th, 1988 at 11:41 am, measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale.

　　It was epicentered in Spitak and took at least 25,000 lives.

　　10. On June 21st, 1990, an earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter Scale struck northwestern Iran.

　　It destroyed cities and villages in Caspian Sea Area and at least 50,000 people got killed.

　　11. On December 26th, 2004, an earthquake with magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter Scale struck the coast of Aceh Province on the northern Indonesian Island of Sumatra,

　　and triggered a tsunami that left nearly 300,000 people dead or missing across Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and India.

　　12. At 14:28 on May 12th, 2008, an earthquake which registered at 8.0 on Richter magnitude scale occurred in Sichuan Province of China.

　　Official figures as of July 21st, 2008 state that 69,197 are confirmed to dead, with 18,341 listed as missing.

　　B. Keywords. avalanche², mudslide, earthquake, cyclone³, hurricanes, tornado⁴, typhoon, drought, flood, forest fire.

　　Vocabulary. strain, crust, knot, whirl, breadth, prolong.

　　Here are the definitions of some disaster names.

　　Listen carefully, fill in the blanks with what you hear and study the definitions carefully.

　　An avalanche is a large amount of ice, snow, earth, rock or other materials sliding swiftly down the side of a mountain or falling down a cliff.

　　A mudslide is a slow moving mudflow that moves down a gradual slope.

　　An earthquake is the sudden release of strain energy in the earth's crust, resulting in waves of shaking that radiate outwards⁵ from earthquake source.

　　A cyclone is a storm or system of winds that rotates around a center of low atmospheric⁶ pressure, advances at a speed of about 30 to 50 kilometers an hour and often brings heavy rain.

　　Hurricanes are tropical cyclones⁷ with winds that exceed 64 knots or 74 miles per hour, and circulated about their centers in the western Atlantic Ocean.

　　A tornado is a violent, destructive whirling wind, usually accompanied with severe thunder, lightning and torrents⁸ of rain, and commonly of short duration and small breadth.

　　A typhoon is a type of violent tropical storm with strong circular winds that exceed 74 miles per hour.

　　It especially happens in the Pacific Ocean.

　　A drought is a period of dryness, especially when prolonged that causes extensive damage to crops or prevents their successful growth.

　　A flood is a rising and overflowing⁹ of a body of water, especially onto normally dry land.

　　A forest fire is a wildfire or uncontrolled fire, that is burning in forest, grass or other areas of vegetation.

　　C. keywords. bomb explosion, ocean storm, crash, snow, hijacker¹⁰, nuclear reaction, train accident, sunken nuclear submarine, heavy rains, storm, earthquake, fires.

　　Vocabulary. ski, submarine, flare-up, Bahrain, the Gulf¹¹ Airlines, Air France.

　　Now listen to some news leads, focus your attention on who, what, when, where and the numbers in each lead and write down

　　what you hear in the given spaces.

　　Algeria: a bomb explosion in Algiers has injured several people in a market area.

　　Another severe ocean storm is moving towards the Pacific coast of Mexico.

　　Bahrain: International experts have begun an official investigation¹² into the cause of a crash of a passenger plane in the Persian Gulf.

　　All 143 people on the Gulf Airlines plane died in the crash Wednesday.

　　Europe: Austrians have honored the 38 people killed by snow at ski areas this past weekend.

　　France: The hijackers of an Air France passenger plane has released his remaining hostages and surrendered to police.

　　Japanese officials say the nuclear reaction at a center northeast of Tokyo has stopped. But it is not clear if the danger has passed.

　　Rescue workers are continuing to search for victims of a train accident in Northern Punjap State.

　　At least 189 people were killed in the accident Thursday. More than 250 people were injured.

　　Russian and Norwegian divers¹³ continue working to recover bodies from the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk.

　　South Africa: At least 12 people have been killed after heavy rains fell in the north.

　　The rain destroyed homes and bridges. Reporters say some roads become rivers of flood waters.

　　The second deadly storm in three days is moving across parts of western Europe.

　　The storm caused transportation delays and forces some airports to close.

　　The two storms have killed more than 115 people.

　　The number of people killed in Sunday's earthquake is northeastern Turkey has now risen to more than 1,200 and is expected to go even higher.

　　At least 50 villages have been destroyed.

　　Firemen say the fires burning to the north of Sydney are now under control,

　　but they warned that the changes in the weather might lead to new flare-ups.

1 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

2 avalanche   

n.雪崩，大量涌来

参考例句：

• They were killed by an avalanche in the Swiss Alps.他们在瑞士阿尔卑斯山的一次雪崩中罹难。
• Higher still the snow was ready to avalanche.在更高处积雪随时都会崩塌。

3 cyclone   

n.旋风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• An exceptionally violent cyclone hit the town last night.昨晚异常猛烈的旋风吹袭了那个小镇。
• The cyclone brought misery to thousands of people.旋风给成千上万的人带来苦难。

4 tornado   

n.飓风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• A tornado whirled into the town last week.龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

5 outwards   

adj.外面的，公开的，向外的；adv.向外；n.外形

参考例句：

• Does this door open inwards or outwards?这门朝里开还是朝外开？
• In lapping up a fur,they always put the inner side outwards.卷毛皮时，他们总是让内层朝外。

6 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

7 cyclones   

n.气旋( cyclone的名词复数 )；旋风；飓风；暴风

参考例句：

• The pricipal objective in designing cyclones is to create a vortex. 设计旋风除尘器的主要目的在于造成涡旋运动。 来自辞典例句
• Middle-latitude cyclones originate at the popar front. 中纬度地区的气旋发源于极锋。 来自辞典例句

8 torrents   

n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断

参考例句：

• The torrents scoured out a channel down the hill side. 急流沿着山腰冲刷出一条水沟。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Sudden rainstorms would bring the mountain torrents rushing down. 突然的暴雨会使山洪暴发。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 overflowing   

n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The stands were overflowing with farm and sideline products. 集市上农副产品非常丰富。
• The milk is overflowing. 牛奶溢出来了。

10 hijacker   

n.拦路抢劫者

参考例句：

• We needed a credibIe hijacker who knew the pIane. 也需要一个懂飞机的让人相信的劫机犯。
• I've never heard of a hijacker Ietting passengers deboard before. 以前也从没听说过有劫机犯让乘客离开。

11 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

12 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

13 divers   

adj.不同的；种种的

参考例句：

• He chose divers of them,who were asked to accompany him.他选择他们当中的几个人，要他们和他作伴。
• Two divers work together while a standby diver remains on the surface.两名潜水员协同工作，同时有一名候补潜水员留在水面上。